Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Day 51 - 26th June 2012

Photograph 1 – A young grizzly bear near Jackson Glacier Lookout. This bear just walked across the road right next to our car. On the Going-to-the-Sun Road, Glacier National Park, Montana.

Photograph 2 – And again, using Anne’s camera. Anne was the closest to the bear when walking past.

Photograph 3 – A beautiful scene heading towards Logan Pass on the Going-to-the-Sun Road. Not far when we spotted the first grizzly bear.

Photograph 4 – The bridge over the St Mary
River, just one mile from our accommodation. Two interesting things here, first
this was the bridge that Forest Gump crossed in the movies of the same name (he
appears to be everywhere in the US that we have been). Secondly, our second
grizzly bear sighting was a few hundred metres before this bridge.

WE SAW TWO GRIZZLY BEARS IN THE WILD
TODAY!!! It was a rest day, just
recuperating after many days of long driving. We are still at St Mary, Montana
just a few hundred metres from the eastern entrance to the Glacier National
Park. To allow the housekeeper to clean our room we decided to take Connie to
Logan Pass on the Going-to-the-Sun Road and repeat what we did yesterday by the
Red Bus. About half way there a young grizzly bear who just walked across the
road as if we were not there. We stopped and took pictures while he or she was
scrounging for food along the edge of the road….amazing! Apparently bears spend
90% of their time digging around for plants and searching for berries. The
other 10% - experts don’t explain. Perhaps it’s their amorous quality time or
changing their diet from herbaceous to a carnivorous cuisine??? After the
excitement in seeing a real life “free” grizzly bear in the wild we continued
to Logan Pass. At the visitor station on top of this pass they were selling
cuddly toys. Anne had to buy (or should I say adopt) a grizzly bear! Going back
down the road and near the end we saw another grizzly…..this time it was twice
the size and darted in the forest next to our car. It was difficult to take
photos because of the vegetation was dark and the bear was behind many trees.
Wow – two in one day. We think the reason why these great animals were on the
road is because the weather was inclement. In fact by the time we arrived back
to our accommodation (12:30pm) it poured and actually hailed. This is our first
day of rain since we have been on the road….but who cared…..it was our rest
day. The afternoon was just relaxing in our lodge and repacking our bags.
Tomorrow we are back on the road again and heading west to Spokane in Washington
state. Damn it… we have to cross over the Going-to-the-Sun Road again along he
Glacier National Park to travel west. This time we have to press on past Logan
Pass to descend into the Pacific Rockies. The good thing about this is - passing
by the same spots where we saw the bears – we might be lucky again tomorrow.
Readers of this narrative may think we get excited about meeting bears in the
wild, but just think of meeting a potential dangerous animal who is free to do
whatever it does, naturally… and these
creatures just go pass you as if you are just another lamp post. Until tomorrow, cheers.